Thursday 16 January 2014

Book Review - Innocence

InnocenceInnocence by Dean Koontz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Innocence is one of those books that grabs you with both hands and doesn't let go. I was intrigued by the short chapters AT&T he front, and once I got into the real meat of the story, I was all in. Even during one of the busiest weeks of my life (adopting two crazy young boys can make your head spin!) I found a way to carve out time every day for this book, staying up later than I should have, sneaking in a few pages waiting at the gas station or in the bathroom, even during phone calls!

This books asks some questions about what we find beautiful and abhorrent, both in others and in ourselves. Like many Koontz books, it has great dogs, though only in brief appearances here. A shame as they are often among my favourite characters of his. It also, as any Koontz book should, has scares and creepiness and moments that make you sit up straighter and clench your hands around your book and twitch a little. It's very much along the lines of some of my favourite books Koontz has written in his career, but with a fresh storyt hat goes in very unexpected places.

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Saturday 4 January 2014

Book Review - Floating Staircase

Floating StaircaseFloating Staircase by Ronald Malfi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would have liked this book a whole lot better if I'd skipped the weird and sappy epilogue.

This is a book about how guilt can haunt us. How we can turn our childhood mistakes into spectres scarier than any ghost from beyond. How we can spend our whole lives trying to explain, or cure, or right what took only moments, but shattered us.

When you lose a brother to drowning in childhood, finding out the little boy who lived in your house before you drowned in the lake behind the house the summer before can drive you nearly to the brink of insanity. Especially when you're certain that boy is still lingering in your home, as evidenced by the ghostly handprint he left in fresh paint. But how do you solve a mystery that no one else in a small town wants you to?

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